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Off Your But!

“The only thing that holds you back from having what you want is the size of your but.” ~Sean Stephenson

Messages from both physical and mental health experts are giving us similar advice. Psychologists like Sean Stephenson are saying we often think too much without taking action. Even so-called positive thinking is useless if we don’t act. His quote above shows us the crux of our sluggishness: It’s our BUT….”But I’m too far behind; But I’m too fat or skinny; But I’m from a broken home; But I don’t have time.” So we sit on what Stephenson calls our “cushy excuses” feeling more and more weary, depressed and hopeless.

Dr. James Lavine of the Arizona Mayo Clinic Obesity Solutions warns that long-term sitting on our literal butts is deadly. He is so convinced of this that he says that sitting for extended periods of time is the new smoking. If you read his article, Sitting is the New Smoking: Ways a Sedentary Lifestyle is Killing You, it will scare you off both your butt and your buts. Here are a few more tips that can help:

Recall how you learned life’s fundamental tasks like walking and talking–not by thinking, but by walking and talking!

If you’re depressed, psychologist Clifford Lazarus says to turn off your thinking and practice anti-depressant behavior, like social involvement and reinvesting in activities you used to enjoy. He quips, “Your head and heart will follow your feet.”

And the piece de resistance, JUST DO IT. I believe the reason that this is the most profitable tagline of all time is because it touches a truth deep within us: if we just shut up, turn off our brains, and get off our butts and our buts, we can, over time, succeed to our own surprise.